Ravenshoe Railway Company Ltd

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Ravenshoe Steam Railway

﻿"Capella" is the name of the loco (loco is short for locomotive, or train engine).When the train service from Ravenshoe to Cairns stopped about 21 years ago, some special people called VOLUNTEERS, who love old Steam Trains, went looking for and found "Capella" in a park in the town of Capella in Central Queensland. Children enjoyed playing on the loco, even though it wasn't able to move. The people of Capella decided to give us the loco, provided we called her CAPELLA.The volunteers went to Capella, and put the loco on a truck and drove all the way back here, then spent a lot of time getting her to work again.

Capella uses wood to make the fire, because thereis plenty of wood available around Ravenshoe.The fire takes about 4 hours to heat the water to make the steam, which gives the power for the loco to pull the train.Each trip to Tumoulin uses about a ute full of chopped wood. If the men get hungry stoking the fire, they can always put sausages on a shovel and cook them in the fire - yummy!Before the loco and carriages can move, we must have:-

A driver

A fireman who keeps the fire going

2 Guards on the train who use flags to signal the driver (green to go and red to stop)

A Station Master, who yells "ALL ABOARD" when everything is all safe.

And of course, the JOLLY CONTROLLER (Grahame West)

The driver and the guards counts everybody (including babies) before we leave, and again before we come back from Tumoulin, to make sure nobody gets left behind.